


You Can Get Most Anything You Want

by Mosca



Category: My So-Called Life
Genre: Gen, Road Trips, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-18
Updated: 2008-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mosca/pseuds/Mosca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angela, Rayanne, and Sharon on a summer road trip with one mix tape, a bag of lollipops, and a car that is mostly Sharon's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Get Most Anything You Want

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to k for the awesome beta.
> 
> Written for Janet Carter

 

 

So apparently Angela is going on this, like, road trip with Rayanne Graff and Rickie Vasquez. To Philadelphia, like, just to go, in that way Angela says things when she thinks they're really deep. Their moms are busy planning this Fourth of July barbecue, which will actually be on the fifth of July and also, as Angela points out, isn't a real barbecue because they're not even grilling, they're bringing stuff her dad is making in advance. "So this whole thing is, like, a massive lie," Angela says. "If they called it, like, a midsummer catered affair, then I would be completely okay with it."

"So this _road trip,_ " Sharon says, because her mom has been talking about nothing but the midsummer catered affair for the past week, and seriously, anything else would be a less painful topic of conversation at this point. "Do any of you even, like, have a car?"

Angela ponders this in her usual dreamy way. "I was going to see if Brian Krakow would lend me his."

"Wait, that's your plan? You're going to, like, demand to borrow Brian's car and then not invite him. On the road trip. Like, at all."

"I'd, I mean, I'd _invite_ him. I just don't think he'd want to, you know, go." Angela rests her chin in the palm of her hand and drums on her cheek with her fingers. "Or maybe he would. He and Rickie are friends, I think, in a weird way."

"You really want to go on a road trip with Brian Krakow?"

"No." Angela laughs. "But I don't have a car." 

"I bet my mom would let us borrow the Camry." Sharon's parents have this brownish Toyota that they just, like, kept after they got a new car. Every once in a while, in an emergency, someone drives it, but mostly it just sits in the driveway looking pathetic. Last year, Sharon learned to drive in it, and for a while she believed her parents were going to give the car to her. But they've never officially done it, and she isn't sure whether it's really hers. "But then you would have to invite me. Not that I'd want to go."

"Maybe you would," Angela says. "I mean, who knows?"

"Yeah, it'll probably only work if I say I'm going. Our moms will be so over the moon with glee that we're, like, doing something together."

"What about Rayanne and Rickie?" Angela is, like, obsessing over her thumbnail. 

Sharon smiles and rolls her eyes towards the kitchen, where their oblivious mothers are roaring with laughter. "I just won't _tell_ them about Rayanne and Rickie."

*

Sharon pulls the station wagon into Angela's driveway. She's not sure if she's supposed to go in or just, like, stay in the car and honk. That was what their moms used to do when they picked her and Angela up from ballet or soccer or whatever: stayed in the car and honked. So if Sharon does that, she will, like, _be_ her mother. She turns off the engine and goes to the door. When she rings the doorbell, Angela and Rayanne practically tumble out of the house, like they're so excited, Angela's house cannot contain them. "Aren't we supposed to, like, wait for Rickie?" Sharon says. She's not sure she even _likes_ Rickie, but she is trying to be nice.

"Oh," Rayanne says. "Rickie's not coming." She says it like Sharon is dumb for even thinking otherwise. 

"He called while we were waiting for you," Angela explains. "He and Mr. Katimski are, like, bonding."

They load everyone's bags into the trunk. Sharon hopes they can't tell that she's scared. She's barely driven on the highway before, and now they're going for, like, five hours. Angela will drive half of it, but still. If you go on the toll road and miss the toll basket, what happens? Do they, like, arrest you? 

Maybe Sharon would know the answers to these things if she weren't terrified of sounding like an idiot. She pulls out of the driveway and does her best to accelerate with confidence.

Sharon watches Rayanne in the rearview mirror. Rayanne is sucking on a lollipop. She must have, like, a hundred cavities. "What I don't get is, why would you turn down a completely exciting road trip to, like, go bowling with Mr. Katimski."

"He's never had a dad," Angela says. "Like, not one who likes him or cares about him. Maybe he's, like, catching up."

"My dad doesn't give a shit about me, and I'm fine." Rayanne crunches her lollipop. _That's debatable,_ Sharon thinks, but she'd rather be polite. Also, Sharon _does_ have a dad who cares about her, and even though he almost died, she avoids hanging out with him. They don't have anything in common. 

"Yeah, but Rickie's never had _anyone._ " Angela takes a tone that is impossible to argue with. 

*

They've been driving for, like, an hour. Rayanne made a tape with this song on it that's not even really a song, just a guy telling a story while he strums a guitar. Rayanne keeps mumbling about how brilliant it is. She thinks she is so cool for knowing this song, for loving it, for being above and beyond the music that normal people listen to. At least the stuff Sharon listens to has a melody. And, like, a point.

There's an exit coming up, and Rayanne is waving her arms around and saying, "Get off here! Get off here!" even though they are, like, hundreds of miles away from Philadelphia. "No, you don't understand. This is the exit for _Bear Rocks._ I need to see Bear Rocks before I die."

"I... kind of need to see Bear Rocks, too," Angela says.

It's a good excuse to go to the bathroom and switch drivers. Full of hope, Sharon takes a maxi pad out of her purse before she pees. She's, like, a month late. When is she supposed to start worrying? She knows she's supposed to worry, and normally she's a great worrier. But that's not how she feels.

She and Kyle used a condom every single time, because Sharon isn't an idiot. Once, they were in the car, this very car as a matter of fact, and they both forgot, and she made him let her jerk him off. She actually said, "I don't want to be a statistic, Kyle."

It's only been a month, and she's never been that regular anyway. They get back in the car, and Angela drives. Sharon sits in the back with Rayanne, who is really excited about Bear Rocks despite the fact that there is _nothing_ in Bear Rocks. She says she asked the guy in the gas station and he was like, you used to be able to go skiing here, but the resort burned down, and now there's nothing at all. "It's so, like, mind-blowing," Rayanne says. "A place with nothing in it."

It would be, like, incredibly redundant to mention that Rayanne is insane.

*

Sharon stretches out in the back seat, realizing that she's ridden in this car thousands of times, but never without a seatbelt. Rayanne gets Angela to rewind the tape, and she sings along with the chorus of the story-song: "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant." When she hears a line she knows, she says it along with the guy telling it. Maybe she deserves some credit for trying to sing along with a song that isn't even a song.

"You know what we should do?" Angela says. "We should just stop once every hour. Wherever we are. Just to, like, see the place we're in." It doesn't sound like she's asking for opinions. The idea seems purely theoretical. "If that's, like, okay with everyone. Because on the other hand, I can also understand wanting to just, like... get there."

Rayanne taps the side of Angela's head and says, "I like the way you think, Angelica," and Angela laughs and swats her hand away. Sharon doesn't get a chance to object. 

They stop in towns that Sharon has never heard of. It's hard to believe that all of this is Pennsylvania. Every town they stop in has people in it, like, thousands of people, or at least hundreds. And some of them are in high school and their schools and their friends are, like, their whole universe. Sharon feels small and petty, but at the same time, she feels, like, whatever the opposite of loneliness is. 

They are in line at a Wendy's, because Rayanne has this weird, like, obsession with Frosties and Dave Thomas, and there's a girl ahead of them in line who's pushing a stroller. Sharon tries to rationalize this person's, like, existence. Maybe she's older than she looks. Maybe she's a sister or a babysitter. The baby in the stroller is getting restless, so Sharon waves at him. He giggles and grins. She's drawn to this baby like he's her fate.

Sharon totally wants a hamburger. This entire time she's been late, she hasn't been sick to her stomach or anything. She keeps going back and forth, like everything's a sign that she's pregnant or not pregnant. Her entire life has been reduced to this fear and to the signs that it's coming true.

Back in the car, Angela starts rambling about how the last time she had a Frosty was on the way home from camp, the summer after sixth grade, with Sharon, in this very car. They have this long conversation about setting moon pies on fire and the whole social hierarchy that revolved around lanyards. "Remember when lanyards were the most important thing in the universe?" Angela says.

"What if they _are?_ " Rayanne says, frighteningly intense.

"Of course they're not," Sharon says. "I mean, if something from camp is the most important thing in the universe, it should be s'mores."

"Or bonfires," Angela says, as if this observation speaks for itself.

They're almost in Philly, and they should probably keep going, but they see an exit sign for King of Prussia, and seriously, they all have to see King of Prussia before they die.

*

Angela's mom made them promise to do something educational, so they go to see the Liberty Bell. For some reason, Sharon assumed it would be behind glass in some big museum, but it's just in this little building and you can actually go up and touch it. Angela is going on and on about how the crack is, like, symbolic, but Sharon thinks there's more symbolism in the guard who stands next to it and tells everyone that they can touch it, that it's okay.

The guard takes a picture of them in front of the bell. After he gives Sharon her camera back, they all have to giggle and say what dorks they are, as if it will keep people from noticing that they're having a really good time being dorks. That's, like, one of the big secrets of the world: dorky things are very often, if not always, more fun than being cool.

Other than the Liberty Bell, they haven't given much thought to what they are going to _do_ in Philadelphia. Because Rayanne is insane, she decides to, like, walk up to random tourists and start up conversations. She asks them if they've seen the Liberty Bell yet and then gives them a lollipop. "What?" Rayanne says. "Don't you ever wish some random person on the street was nice to you? Just for, like, the sake of being nice?"

 _Yes,_ Sharon thinks. _All the time. Every second._ But she can't admit that. "Not if they're, like, a total freak."

Rayanne cocks her head to the side and twirls her hair. "So what you're saying is, like... you wish someone like _you_ would do that. Except someone like you never would. Because anyone who hands out lollipops for no reason is a freak."

Rayanne has, like, completely robbed Sharon of any kind of response. Sharon stands there with her hands on her hips. Rayanne stares back. Sharon says, "Okay. Give me a lollipop."

"You haven't _earned_ a lollipop."

"I'm sorry I called you a freak. Now let me go give someone a lollipop." Sharon holds out her hand.

Rayanne gives her five lollipops. "In case it's, like, a family or something."

Sharon goes up to an elderly couple, feeling like she is going to get arrested. She puts on her biggest smile and asks them how they're enjoying Philadelphia. They're German, and they just visited the Benjamin Franklin memorial. She takes their picture, distributes lollipops, and tells them she hopes they have a nice day.

Rayanne comes up behind her. "That was fun," Sharon admits tightly.

"Obviously," Rayanne says. "But have you seen Angela? I gave her a bunch of lollipops and now she's, like, missing. Maybe she's been kidnapped. By vampires."

Angela is sitting on a bench, talking to some guy, gesturing a lot. She's probably comparing life to an embarrassing journey or something. Maybe the guy thinks it's deep. Sharon points and rolls her eyes.

"So I was talking to these guys," Rayanne says. "Not that guy. Other, better guys. Who were totally not tourists. They're, like, part of a band, and they're playing tonight, and we should, like, go. Right?"

Sharon tries to sound enthusiastic.

"We don't _have_ to." Rayanne does that head-to-the-side thing again, where she's trying to figure a person out from every angle. It's childish and intrusive but also seems to be a compliment. It's Rayanne's whole body's way of saying she thinks you're interesting. "Are you okay? Do you need, like, assistance? Should we call an ambulance? Because that would be so cool, to like, have an emergency right here."

Sharon opens her mouth to say she's fine but what comes out is, "I think I'm pregnant."

Rayanne throws her arms around Sharon and squeezes her like an overbearing great aunt, even patting her back. Then she steps back and, like, reverts to her usual leaning. "But you're not. I mean - you're not. Because that would be way too real."

"But what if I _am?_ "Sharon shudders.

"Then you should have a lolly," Rayanne says. "They fix everything." Rayanne unwraps a red one, acting like she somehow knows it is Sharon's favorite flavor.

Fear claws at the inside of Sharon's stomach. It's not going to go away until she takes a test or goes to the doctor. No, even then, she'll still be afraid, either of what she has to do next or what her life would have been if she'd had, like, a thing to do next. But today she is in Philadelphia with her friends, not just maybe-in-a-weird-way friends but completely her friends, and besides, the whole world tastes like artificial cherries. Which, even though it is something Angela would pause to ponder, is totally deep. 

 


End file.
